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November 5, 2023

5 Reasons Why The Honda City And Brio Deserve A Look

Admit it: we rarely get excited when it comes to entry-level motoring. Sure enough, they’re often dismissed as mere appliances on wheels—they get you from Point A to Point B fine, but they do so without raising the pulse. However, if there’s one carmaker that goes against the grain, it’s Honda.

Closer Look, First Drive Impressions Of The 2024 Honda e:N1

Honda is launching their first-ever EV for the ASEAN region, and it could be this: the Honda e:N1. For those who’ve been waiting and clamoring for the Honda e, we could almost hear your sigh of disappointment—believe us, we had the same feeling as well—but putting aside our enthusiast hat for a minute, this battery-powered compact crossover actually makes a whole lot of sense for the region.

The CX-60 And CX-90: Creating SUVs The Mazda Way

Let’s recap what these two vehicles are again. The smaller of these two is the CX-60, while the bigger one is the CX-90. Both represent Mazda’s upmarket aspirations and more crucially, slot above two of the carmaker’s so-called bread-and-butter models—the CX-5 (for the CX-60) and the CX-9 (for the CX-90). This challenge puts Mazda in a unique situation—one which they solved by coming up with a totally new, clean sheet design.

The GAC GS3 Emzoom Is For The Young, The Youthful, And The Creative

One thing that you can count on with car brands today is how incredibly creative they have become. Gone are the days when performance always held more weight than the aesthetic. Today, the personality of a car is judged by not only how well it drives, but largely about how the design and overall look could complement the lifestyle and character of its potential owner. After all, back in the day, aftermarket modifications were all the rage and all it took was a trip from the dealership straight to your favorite shop along Banawe for a quick upgrade.

Review: 2024 Mazda CX-60 3.3 HEV Turbo

The CX-60 occupies a narrow space in the market between two more traditional segments: the two-row compact SUV and the three-row mid-sized SUV. With that, it must deliver enough differentiation either to entice buyers to move up (in the case of compact SUVs) or move laterally (in the case of mid-sized SUVs). Either way, it’s got its work cut out. Having sampled the diesel-powered CX-60 3.3 HEV Turbo-D Sport before, I’d say that Mazda managed to get about 80 percent of it right. It isn’t perfect, but ultimately there’s still lots to like.

The 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Is A Tito Car And That's Not Such A Bad Thing

On the surface, being labeled as a “Tito’s car” may seem insulting; after all, carmakers are always targeting the youth or youth-oriented demographic. However, in my experience with the all-new Subaru Crosstrek (the crossover formerly known as the Subaru XV), whether it’s by design or accident, its practical packaging and easy-to-drive demeanor make it the great car for those who’ve just hit their mid-forties. Let me explain.

First Drive: 2024 Nissan Z And Nissan GT-R

Let’s stop for a moment and admire the fact that both the Nissan Z and GT-R exist. At a time when carmakers have gone crazy over electrification, these two honest-to-goodness sportscar is testament that some people at Nissan haven’t lost their cajónes. It’s the most definitive sign of Nissan daring to do what others don’t; to do seemingly the impossible when everyone else has given up. What a world we live in.

Review: BMW X1 sDrive18d XLine

You can tell how much a brand values its name by how much thought is put into the details of every product that is produced. Consistency is key, especially when it comes to the standard of quality, starting with design, engineering, and of course, the final make. Not only should the final output look great, the attention to detail regarding construction should be impeccable. This characteristic is what sets BMW apart from other luxury car brands.

First Drive: 2024 Omoda 5

The truth is in the pudding, or so they say. After claiming that they see themselves as a global brand that’s taken the pulse of the youth, it’s finally time to sample Omoda’s first-ever product: the Omoda 5. How is it, you ask? Well, let’s put it this way: it’s taken design risks—some of which have paid off handsomely, while others don’t seem to go far enough.

Review: 2023 BMW M340i xDrive Touring

Before SUVs and crossovers took over the world, if you needed to haul stuff, there were wagons. Thanks to the popularity of cladded up raised passenger cars, wagons or estates (or Touring if you prefer the proper BMW term), are now relegated to a very fringe set of buyers. That’s why it comes as a pleasant surprise that BMW Philippines has decided to bring in not one, not two, but three members of the 3 Series Touring family.

Review: 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5 GLS 2WD Long Range

The Ioniq 5 isn’t Hyundai’s first EV, but it is their first EV that happens to turn heads. If you’ve only seen it from pictures, you’d presume it’s sized like a compact hatchback, sort of like a retro-futuristic Pony—the brand’s first mass-produced and exported car. However, it’s a big all-electric crossover. You can credit the bespoke E-GMP platform for that, and it’s a strength that Hyundai keeps on leaning on to make this one of the brightest gems for the year.

Review: 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6

Hyundai has decided to shape the key fob of the Ioniq 6 in the form of its logo. This move carries with it a lot of weight and expectation, since the logo itself is a symbol of customer trust and commitment. It is this commitment to excellence that greets you each time you unlock the doors (provided you still reach out for the key fob to open the doors), and it is the one that this all-electric sedan has easily met.

Review: 2024 Subaru Crosstrek 2.0i-S

Whenever a carmaker comes up with a new nameplate, it comes with the expectation that the overall experience would be new and transformative. Yet when Subaru decided to axe the “XV” name in favor of “Crosstrek,” the resulting crossover feels like it took two steps forward and two steps back. It continues the Subaru XV’s careful, and at times, painfully slow evolution. To be fair, the crossover formerly known as the XV, is hard to beat. Among its competitors—the beautiful Mazda CX-30 among them—the Crosstrek is the one we’d take in a heartbeat. It’s a bit boring, sure, but it’s just so well-attuned to our road conditions be it in design, packaging, and safety.

Review: 2023 Suzuki S-Presso GL AGS

When Suzuki Philippines launched the S-Presso micro hatchback/crossover in 2020, it provided a bit of style in a segment known for no-frills, all-basic transportation. And with a P 518,000 launch price, it provided many the chance to buy a brand-new car; an opportune time given it was the middle of the COVID pandemic. Fast-forward about two years later, here’s the refreshed S-Presso. Packing new stuff, it also happens to be 30 percent more expensive. Not so entry-level now, is it? Is it still worth it?

Review: 2023 BMW iX xDrive40

Different. Unhinged. Ugly. The BMW iX, inside and out, is one of the most polarizing new cars on sale today. It’s the foil to the BMW iX3 M Sport which is luxury EV motoring at its most incognito. This one is what happens when a carmaker decides to flip the script, going for tech above everything else. While their approach is about 95 percent agreeable, the remaining five perfect makes you question whether they should have done something like this in the first place.

Review: 2023 BMW iX3 M Sport

The peculiar thing about EVs is that they tend to look like spaceships. Whether it’s to tout their impressive packaging or to visually communicate them at being at the bleeding edge of tech, they stand out. This is great for some, but for others who don’t want to daily drive something that looks like an extra from Star Trek, thankfully BMW’s come to the rescue with the BMW iX3.

Review: 2024 Mazda CX-60 3.3 HEV Turbo-D Sport

The first-ever CX-60 is something Mazda must get right; after all, it’s representative of their premium aspirations. Though some may say that it started with the current Mazda3 and CX-30, those vehicles didn’t command much of a price premium over the competition to warrant raised eyebrows. The CX-60, on the other hand, nips at the heels of real luxury with its P 2.890-million price tag. This begs the question: did they get it right or will it serve as a reality check that’ll send them crashing down?

Can An EV Road Trip? We Drive The BMW iX1 And i7 In Germany To Find Out

EV adoption is still in its infancy here in the Philippines. With just a handful of public chargers available, most EVs are relegated to urban use, not because of their range per se, but because of range anxiety. Even as carmakers manage to unlock sometimes stupendous ranges on modern EVs, range anxiety has caused owners to be overly cautious about taking one out of town; and they have every right to be. Unlike a conventional petrol or hybrid vehicle, once you run out of juice in an EV, it’s game over.

Normally, carmakers would like to keep any information about their upcoming vehicles locked up tight. Despite the presence of embargos and non-disclosure agreements, some outlets though just let information slip out whether accidentally or on purpose. Chevrolet, however, did something different. Weeks before its Philippine launch, they let us have a crack at their all-new 2024 Trax.

Review: 2023 Mazda BT-50 4x2 Black Edition

When it comes to the Mazda BT-50, all the attention is focused on the top-of-the-line 3.0 4x4; and rightfully so. Priced at P 1.790-million, it’s an often-overlooked choice in the pickup truck segment. Not only does it offer competitive specs vis-à-vis its price tag, it also comes with one of the country’s best ownership packages (a 5-year free service plan, in case you didn’t know). Go a step down, however, and things aren’t so shiny anymore.

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